Pinckney's Jasper County school redistricting plan meets resistance

State Sen. Clementa Pinckney has proposed a redistricting map for the Jasper County School District, but some say his plans are moving too fast.

A public viewing of the proposed redistricting maps was set for late Tuesday in the Jasper County Council chambers.

Pinckney said if the bill passes, the changes would help represent a more equal population in the nine districts.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Jasper County’s grew from 20,678 in 2000 to 24,777 in 2010.

Pinckney said some districts have too many residents and others have too few, causing unfair representation and legality issues, which led him to propose S. 1258.

“Now that we have significant population shifts, we need to address this,” Pinckney said. “This is not an arbitrary decision, but something that needs to be done to be in compliance with the law. We need to make sure there’s representation across the county in reference to our growing population.”

Bobby Bowers, director of the S.C. Budget and Control Board Division of Research and Statistics, said Pinckney requested to have the control board review the population of each nine single-member districts for the Jasper school board.

According to a letter Bowers sent to Pinckney, if the districts were found out of compliance with the law, Pinckney asked the board to look into constructing “a new redistricting map to bring the district back into compliance as well as adhere to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, to ensure all parts of the districts are contiguous and adhere to traditional redistricting principles.”

Board’s findings

The current plan is out of compliance with the “one person, one vote” requirement, according to the board’s findings.

Bowers and his team compared the current plan, called the Benchmark Plan, to the proposed redistricting plan by implementing the 2010 census numbers.

“If you add the highest deviation and the lowest deviation together, you get a deviation of around 3 percent as opposed to the Benchmark Plan deviation of 62.37 percent,” Bowers said.

He said the recommended range deviation is 10 percent.

“We’ve got to get down under 10 percent,” Bowers said. “With this proposed plan, it meets the criteria of one person, one vote.”

Bowers said the law requires that every 10 years after the census, counties must redraw the school district lines to be in agreement with the new population.

Jasper County Council Chairwoman Barbara Clark said last week she hadn’t been informed about the plans at the time the bill was introduced.

“From what I understand, he’s just introducing this bill and I’ve seen some maps, but I don’t fully understand what’s the haste to get this done,” Clark said.

She said she’d recommend Pinckney set up workshops so the citizens can understand what’s going on.

“Probably five workshops and space them out to give people a chance to go from the first workshop, figure out their questions, then go to the second one, and so on,” Clark said.

She said she’s disappointed in the rapidity of the bill process.

“You represent the people and to put a bill on the floor and not talk to the people, I believe that is wrong,” Clark said. “He should respect the citizens enough to let them know about this so they have a say and voice in the matter.”

‘Need for change’

Rep. Bill Herbkersman, chairman of the Jasper County Legislative Delegation, said he believes the bill has very little chance of passing in its current form.

“I think we all realize there’s a need for change due to the percentages, but this is not the delegation’s proposal,” Herbkersman said.

“I believe we’ll move on with an alternative redistricting plan that mirrors that of the County Council.”

Herbkersman said a proposed alternative plan, which has only been discussed, has four-fifths of the delegation’s support.

“We see how successful the current County Council operates,” Herbkersman said. “It seems to be more in tune with what voters want. There’s no fighting with County Council like there is in other boards.”

Pinckney proposed a redistricting map for the school district in 2012.

It went through two readings before being struck down on its third and final reading. He said he believes the plan should have passed two years ago.

“This would save everyone a lawsuit. The district is mal-proportioned and the proposed plan would stand up in any court if it was challenged on legality issues,” Pinckney said. “I tried in 2012 to do that and this is just another attempt to try to do that. This isn’t anything more than trying to be in compliance with the law.”

S. 1258 has been introduced in the S.C. Senate, read a first time and placed on the local and uncontested calendar.

There are five school board seats up for election in November: District 1, held by Alina Hamilton-Clark; District 3, held by Berty Riley; District 5, held by Cathy Gardner; District 7, held by Priscilla Fraser; and District 9, held by Leroy Bentley.